Author Archives: stefan-dirlich-hzdr

FINEST involved in SPHERE Policy Brief on Plastics

| 11. June 2026
The SPHERE project brings together expertise in the Helmholtz Association on plastics, particularly with regard to the challenges of sustainable use of plastic. A policy brief reflecting the perspectives of research, industry, public authorities and (organized) civil society was written through a participatory process. Hermann Heipieper and further scientists from FINEST Microplastics were part of [...]

Aevoloop: great start up – great excursion for FINEST

| 11. June 2026
The excursion to Aevoloop allowed the PhD candidates of FINEST to have interesting insights into an innovative start-up that aims at developing polymers that have a predefined break-up to facilitate the recycling at end-of-life. The company spent three hours for the FINEST group, and introduced the company and the processes they develop as well as [...]

Great PM08 at UFZ in Leipzig

| 11. June 2026
The FINEST partners met end of May in Leipzig for a great exchange concerning the current state of FINEST. Traditionally, the meeting was opened by a company excursion. The group of PhD's and PostDocs visited Aevoloop, where they were well received and given an insightfull overview of the company that strives for easy-to-recycle polymers. On [...]

FINEST SAB meets SC

| 27. March 2026
In the meeting on March 20th, the members of the FINEST Scientific Advisory Board were informed on the detailed results of the excellent mid term evaluation FINEST received in 2025. In addtiion, the shortcomings were discussed as well as the recommendations of the auditors to improve the performance of the project. The project is now [...]

DGAW Science Award for Tim Kurtz

| 26. March 2026
Tim Kurtz, FINEST PhD candidate from KIT, received the DGAW Science Award 2026 for the best presentation at the 15th DGAW Scientific Congress at Hochschule Pforzheim (February 24th to 25th, 2026). He presented his doctoral thesis research in a talk titled „Impact of Mineral Additives  on the Pyrolysis of Polystyrene“. Well deserved - many congratulations [...]

PM08 in Leipzig

| 6. March 2026
FINEST is happy to announce that the next project meeitng will take place in Leipzig at UFZ. From May 20th to 22nd the finest colleagues will gather to continue the scientific exchange, and further develop the strategy for the final 15 months of the project. Here's the preliminary and rough agenda for the three days: [...]

FINEST invited to BDE meeting

| 25. February 2026
The FINEST coordination team is glad having received an invitation from Dr. Freya Sternkopf, member of the FINEST SAB,to a regular meeting of BDE's division responsible for hazardous waste. Freya is managing director of the Saxonian Association of the Recycling Industry as well as head of the division of mineral and hazardous waste of the [...]

Successful and great PM07 in Dresden

| 2. December 2025
The FINEST team enjoyed a great meeting in Dresden end of November at the 4TransferLab of TU Bergakademie Freiberg. A big thank-you to the entire team (Anja, Katrin, Stephan, etc.) for hosting us. In addition, one part of the meeitng was dedicated to introduce FINEST into "public encounter" in order to discover possibilities to disseminate [...]